1. Arrange students into groups. Each group needs at least ONE person who has a mobile device.
2. If their phone camera doesn't automatically detect and decode QR codes, ask students to
4. Cut them out and place them around your class / school.
1. Give each group a clipboard and a piece of paper so they can write down the decoded questions and their answers to them.
2. Explain to the students that the codes are hidden around the school. Each team will get ONE point for each question they correctly decode and copy down onto their sheet, and a further TWO points if they can then provide the correct answer and write this down underneath the question.
3. Away they go! The winner is the first team to return with the most correct answers in the time available. This could be within a lesson, or during a lunchbreak, or even over several days!
4. A detailed case study in how to set up a successful QR Scavenger Hunt using this tool can be found here.
Question | Answer |
| 1. Discuss with your group the meaning of this quote from the story. "If any message was intercepted by an enemy who figured out the code, the Spy Ring couldn't apply that code to other written messages." | They couldn't use that code again because the enemy would be able to decode their information. | 2. Discuss in your group how invisible ink was used. How would an agent know how to activate the invisible ink to read the message? Which do you think would be the best kind to use? | You needed lemon juice to read some messages. Others needed to be heated up. If you needed fire to read a letter, Washington told his agents to put an F in the corner of the letter. If it needed acid, like lemon juice, Washington told his agents to put an A in the corner of the letter. | 3. Discuss the spy ring, it's name and who started it. | The network was known as the Culper Spy Ring. Benjamin Tallmadgef, an officer under Washington, created the network under the general's orders. Also in the group were Robert Townsend, James Rivington, Abraham Woodhull, Austin Roe, Anna Smith Strong, Caleb Brewster, and more people. | 4. Discuss what a word number code was and give an example of how to use it. | One of the codes they used was a word-number code. This meant that each number stood for a word. This code was created by Benjamin Tallmadge. If you wanted to say "New York," you would put 727. To say "I love New York" in Tallmadge's code, you would use 280-348-727. | 5. Decipher the code at the bottom of the article. | CLCUAENQIKHNIGOHEPLT AMORGADUCTIKNBTHLAO HINT: The second line of this message uses a rail fence code. Write out the first "word," leaving space between each letter. Then write one letter of the second "word" in each space. | 6. Describe how an agent would decipher a pattern of hidden words. | The spies had grids, or masks, that they would put on top of every written message so that they could see only certain words |
Discuss with your group the meaning of this quote from the story. "If any message was intercepted by an enemy who figured out the code, the Spy Ring couldn't apply that code to other written messages."&choe=UTF-8
Question 1 (of 6)
Discuss in your group how invisible ink was used. How would an agent know how to activate the invisible ink to read the message? Which do you think would be the best kind to use?&choe=UTF-8
Question 2 (of 6)
Discuss the spy ring, it's name and who started it.&choe=UTF-8
Question 3 (of 6)
Discuss what a word number code was and give an example of how to use it.&choe=UTF-8
Question 4 (of 6)
Decipher the code at the bottom of the article.&choe=UTF-8
Question 5 (of 6)
Describe how an agent would decipher a pattern of hidden words.&choe=UTF-8
Question 6 (of 6)
